Progress Continues on Apple’s Ambitious ‘Spaceship’ Campus

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Progress Continues on Apple’s Ambitious ‘Spaceship’ CampusIn 2011, Steve Jobs brought a characteristically bold proposal to the Cupertino City Council. His goal? Create the best office building in the world.

Now, nearly 5 years later, the massive, futuristic form of Apple’s Campus 2 is taking shape. Nicknamed “The Spaceship,” the main building resembles a cross between a flying saucer and a particle accelerator. Nearly a mile in circumference, the mammoth circular structure will house nearly 3 million square feet of floor space.

All that indoor space will be dwarfed by the lush landscapes outside, however. Once the campus is complete, 80 percent of the site will be composed of green space. 7,000 native trees will be planted throughout the campus, the species of which have been carefully chosen based on their drought tolerance and resilience. Fruit trees will be used to supply the cafeteria with fresh produce.

Perhaps the most impressive characteristic of the campus is that it will be powered entirely by renewable sources of energy. 700,000 square feet of solar panels will work in conjunction with low carbon biofuels to provide the building with clean, sustainable energy. It will also utilize a natural ventilation system that allows the main structure to function without heating or air conditioning for 75 percent of the year. To minimize water consumption, over 150,000 gallons of recycled water will be pumped to the campus every day.

The total cost of the project is estimated at roughly $5 billion. If you’d like to learn more about Apple Campus 2, you can check out the complete project description here.

Here at Construction Protection Systems we’re proud to have had the opportunity to play a part, however small, in the growth of one of America’s most innovative and influential companies. Stay tuned for more updates from the makers of 1-2-3 Door Shield – the original, reusable door protection system.

Hershey Data Center Set to Open in Spring 2016

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Hershey Data Center Set to Open in Spring 2016Throughout his life, Milton Hershey was an entrepreneur well-recognized for his many philanthropic endeavors. His vision for the community of Hershey, Pennsylvania was downright utopic – a place where his workforce could live decent, fulfilling lives and have access to quality education and entertainment. Now, thanks to the efforts of the folks at the Hershey Medical Center, his legacy will live on in a new data center on the cutting edge of medical science.

The data center, which is expected to open in April of next year, will record and analyze the genetic material of patients in order to assess their risk factors for disease and generate predictive models to help prevent disease in the future. The medical center has already started gathering genetic samples from members of the local community. Over time, the data center will become a massive compendium of human genetic material, granting doctors and researchers valuable new insight into the effect that an individual’s genome can have on their potential for disease.

As of January of 2015, nearly 100 people had already submitted genetic samples to the project. According to local publication Penn Live, “Thus far, the recruitment has focused on people affected by about two dozen conditions, including ALS, multiple sclerosis, childhood epilepsy and inter-cranial aneurysms.”

When the first human genome was decoded, the project cost nearly $3 billion to complete. Today, complete genome sequencing costs less than $2,000. As genetic analysis becomes more and more affordable, data centers such as this one may well become our best hope at abolishing some of humanity’s most devastating diseases.

Here at Construction Protection Systems we’re proud to have had the opportunity to play a part, however small, in the development of a medical center at the forefront of discovery and innovation. Stay tuned for more updates from the makers of 1-2-3 Door Shield – the original, reusable door protection system.

Largest Bank in Colorado Relocates to Denver Tech Center

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Largest Bank in Colorado Relocates to Denver Tech CenterCoBank was born in 1989 following a merger of 11 agricultural lending organizations originally established in 1916 under Congress’ Farm Credit System. Today, according to the CoBank’s website, they serve “approximately 75,000 farmers, ranchers and other rural borrowers in 23 states around the country.” Since they were founded over 25 years ago, CoBank has grown to become an integral component of America’s agricultural credit lending system and the largest bank in Colorado.

Now, in an effort to facilitate further growth, CoBank is preparing to relocate its headquarters to a new 11-story office building in the Denver Tech Center. “Our new corporate headquarters will greatly improve the workplace experience of our associates, and it will meet the needs of our business for the foreseeable future,” said CoBank CEO Robert Engel in an interview with the Denver Business Journal.

The building will be home to 296,000 square feet of office space, the vast majority of which will be occupied by CoBank. The bank’s current headquarters are located in a nearby facility in Greenwood Village.

According to the Denver Business Journal, CoBank is currently worth nearly $100 billion in assets. Likewise, the company’s new headquarters will be a welcome addition to this burgeoning new center of business development in Denver. CoBank is in the process of transferring its personnel and infrastructure to its new headquarters, and expects to vacate the old location completely by March of 2016.

Here at Construction Protection Systems, we’re proud to have had the opportunity to play a part, however small, in the growth and development of this important agricultural lending institution. Stay tuned for more updates from the makers of 1-2-3 Door Shield – the original, reusable door protection system.

Work Begins on Amazon’s New Data Center in Dublin, Ohio

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Work Begins on Amazon’s New Data Center in Dublin, OhioThanks to an $81 million dollar tax incentive from the Ohio Tax Credit Authority, central Ohio is well on its way to becoming a burgeoning new hub of innovation for big tech companies. Back in September of last year, city officials in Dublin, Ohio offered Amazon 68 acres of land on which to build a new data center valued at $1.1 billion. By February of 2015, Amazon had accepted the offer and state officials had approved development plans for the massive new complex.

In addition to the data center in Dublin, Amazon also plans to build two more data centers in the nearby cities of Hilliard and New Albany. Now, according to a recent article in the Columbus Dispatch, Amazon has even more ambitious plans for central Ohio. Within the next few years the company hopes to employ a total of 1,000 employees statewide. Since the three data centers currently in development will be staffed by just 120 employees, this announcement would seem to suggest that Amazon has plans for far more widespread construction in the Buckeye State.

In spite of the local hype surrounding the three data centers, we have few concrete details about their progress. Amazon, in an effort to protect the data of their customers, has been characteristically quiet about the data centers’ development. Cybersecurity is a chief concern of the tech giant, so it’s not surprising that they should want to keep details about the project to themselves for now. What we do know is that these three data centers will nearly double the total number of data centers Amazon has in the United States at the moment. It’s suspected that the new data centers will facilitate Amazon’s continued endeavors in the extremely lucrative field of cloud computing.

Here at Construction Protection Systems, we’re proud to have played a part, however small, in this exciting new phase of growth and development in Central Ohio. Stay tuned for more updates from the makers of 1-2-3 Door Shield – the original, reusable door protection system.

San Francisco MOMA Expansion to Be Complete in October 2015

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San Francisco MOMA Expansion to Be Complete in October 2015In May of 2013, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art closed its doors and broke ground on an ambitious expansion that would more than double its exhibition space. Now, more than two years later, the museum is nearly ready to welcome visitors once again.

 

 

This project has been unique in a number of respects. When museums expand, they typically remain open or move their exhibition space to a temporary satellite location in order to maintain their flow of revenue from membership and admission fees. Because of the extent of the renovation and the high cost of real estate in the city, the San Francisco MOMA didn’t have this luxury. The building’s construction has also been challenging for the developers due to space restrictions that have made it difficult to stabilize cranes and move materials.

Once completed, the ten-story addition will house much of the museum’s permanent collection which has grown exponentially in recent years thanks to generous private donations. In addition to exhibition space, the expansion will also include roughly 15,000 square feet of free-access public spaces for patrons to enjoy. In total, the cost of the project is estimated at $610 million.

The structure, which incorporates innovative eco-friendly features such as gray water recycling and a vertical garden, was designed with LEED Gold certification in mind. Designers also made sure to include plenty of opportunities for visitors to take in the scenery of the surrounding city. A terrace on the seventh floor will offer patrons panoramic views of the city skyline and the San Francisco Bay.

The construction is slated for completion in late October, 2015, and the museum will officially reopen in early 2016. Here at Construction Protection Systems, we’re proud to have played a part, however small, in the completion of this monumental undertaking. Stay tuned for more updates from the makers of 1-2-3 Door Shield – the original, reusable door protection system.

Medford Leas: Retirement Community and Nature Preserve

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Medford Leas: Retirement Community and Nature PreserveWhat do you envision when you hear the words “retirement community?”

For many of us, nondescript condominiums and roads built for golf carts are likely the first things to come to mind. Aside from the occasional plastic philodendron tucked away in a corner, we can reasonably expect these places to be more or less devoid of plant life.

At Medford Leas in New Jersey, however, residents are treated to a wholly different experience. Nestled in the heart of the Medford Leas Nature Preserve and Barton Arboretum, this retirement community is home to 600 retirees and over 200 acres of public garden space.

According to online publication My Central Jersey, “The mission of the arboretum is to promote the appreciation and knowledge of horticulture and to emphasize the importance of integrating nature into people’s living, working and recreational environments.” Medford Leas also aims to uphold principles of environmental sustainability in order to ensure that the comfort of its residents doesn’t come at the expense of the local ecosystem.

The community was founded in 1971 by The Estaugh, a non-profit organization affiliated with the Quaker Church. Over the course of its 40 year history, Medford Leas has established nearly 100 committees, many of which focus on environmental education and stewardship. These include 20 horticulture committees, a bird watching committee and an apiary committee.

In an interview with My Central Jersey, Jack Carman, designer of the Back Porch Garden at Medford Leas, explains that, “Nature-based research is growing and continues to show that exposure to nature lowers blood pressure, reduces stress, increases attention, creates a reduction in pain and decreases agitation.”

Here at Construction Protection Systems, we’re proud to have had the opportunity to make a contribution, however small, to the tranquil community of Medford Leas.

Stay tuned for more updates from the makers of 1-2-3 Door Shield – the original, reusable door protection system.

Houston’s Baylor Medical Center Gains New Designation

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Houston’s Baylor Medical Center Gains New DesignationSince it opened in 2006, the doctors and researchers at the Baylor College of Medicine have been providing cancer patients in the Houston, Texas region the care and attention they need to combat their conditions. Now, thanks to a prestigious new distinction from the National Cancer Institute, the Baylor Cancer Center will have access to even more of the resources and equipment they need to tend to their patients.

On July 30, the Baylor College of Medicine was officially designated as a Comprehensive Cancer Center by the NCI. Since this designation was first conceived in 1971, only 43 institutions in the country have attained the coveted title of Comprehensive Cancer Center. In Texas, the second most populous state in the Union, there are only two other such centers available to cancer patients. By contrast, California has seven NCI designated comprehensive cancer centers.

Dr. Kent Osborne, director of the Baylor Cancer Center, weighed in on the impact of the hospital’s new designation in a recent interview with the Houston Chronicle. “Baylor’s new designation will expand opportunities for research and patient access to state-of-the-art clinical care,” said Osborne.

With this designation, Baylor will join the MD Anderson Cancer Center to provide industry-leading care for patients in Houston. Along with its new title, the Baylor Cancer Center will also receive a 5 year grant worth $14.5 million dollars to devote to new equipment and care services.

Here at Construction Protection Systems, we’re proud to have had the opportunity to make a contribution, however small, to the growth and development of this essential resource for cancer treatment and research in Texas.

Stay tuned for more updates from the makers of 1-2-3 Door Shield – the original, reusable door protection system.      

Historic Miami Hotel Receives a 21st Century Renovation

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Historic Miami Hotel Receives a 21st Century RenovationThe Faena District is an ambitious $1 billion luxury residential and retail project that spans a full six city blocks in Miami Beach. Once it’s complete, the massive complex will be home to a shopping mall, 169-room hotel, and multi-million dollar condos. At the heart of the Faena District lies a symbol of an earlier period of wealth and prosperity in Miami Beach: the Saxony Hotel.

When it was built in 1948, the Saxony was one of the first luxury resort hotels in Miami Beach. The Saxony was a vision of opulence, and an inspiration for many of the other luxury hotels that would later come to occupy the sandy shores of Miami. In its heyday, the Saxony boasted the finest amenities of the era including an Olympic-sized swimming pool, private beach, tennis courts and air conditioning. In fact, it was the first air-conditioned hotel in Miami Beach!

When the hotel originally opened, real estate analysts estimated that each room cost roughly $21,000 to build. In today’s dollars, that equates to a cost of nearly $200,000 per room. The Saxony was nicknamed the “Ivory Tower” by locals for the hotel’s high-end rooftop nightclub

Today, thanks to the joint efforts of Argentine real-estate developer Alan Faena and Ukrainian-born businessman Len Blatavatnik, this Miami Beach landmark is getting a new lease on life. Here at Construction Protection Systems we’re proud to have had a part, however small, in the restoration of this iconic Miami Beach hotel.

Stay tuned for more updates from the makers of 1-2-3 Door Shield – the original, reusable door protection system.

American Airlines Operation Center Nears Completion

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American Airlines Operation Center Nears CompletionIn 2013, American Airlines emerged from bankruptcy and became the largest airline in the world through a $14 billion merger with US Airways. Since then, the 80-year- old airline has been working to consolidate its operations with those of US Airways in a series of restructuring initiatives.

The latest of these initiatives calls for the relocation of the US Airways flight operations center to American Airlines’ headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas. In order to accommodate this huge influx of personnel, American Airlines is constructing a new 149,000 square foot joint operations center for an estimated $88 million. Once completed, the operations center will house over 1,400 employees who oversee everything from flight logistics to customer relations. Roughly 600 of these employees will come from the current US Airways operations facility located outside of Pittsburgh.

The building is being named after Robert Baker, a former American Airlines executive who managed the airline’s operations for over 35 years until his retirement in 2002. In an interview with local Fort Worth publication the Star-Telegram, American Airlines Chief Executive Doug Parker cited Baker’s “love of aviation and commitment to safety” as determining factors in the naming of the facility.

American Airlines broke ground on the facility last July, and expects it to be complete by the third quarter of this year.

At Construction Protection Systems, we’re proud to have had the opportunity to make a contribution, however small, to this massive undertaking. Stay tuned for more updates from the makers of 1-2-3 Door Shield – the original, reusable door protection system.

Texas A&M – San Antonio Completes Central Academic Building

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Texas A&M – San Antonio Completes Central Academic BuildingThe largest university in Texas just got bigger. Texas A&M – San Antonio, a campus whose student body has grown by over 200 percent in the last five years, opened the doors of its new central academic building in the South Side of the city late last year. The 170,750 square-foot building is home to a new auditorium, as well as four floors of classrooms, science labs, and lecture halls.

Just three years ago, the San Antonio campus consisted of a single multi-purpose building. Today, that number has quadrupled. The campus was founded in part to support the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board’s initiative to enroll 630,000 students in college by 2015. Currently, Texas A&M – San Antonio’s enrollment stands at roughly 4,500 students. By 2025, the campus hopes to have 25,000 students enrolled.

School officials are optimistic about the school’s expected growth, both for the benefit of the student body and the city in which the campus resides. According to an article published by My San Antonio, “Most of [Texas A&M – San Antonio’s] students are from the city’s South and West sides – areas that officials believe will grow by hundreds of thousands of residents by 2030. Many are the first in their families to go to college.” In total, nearly 75 percent of the student body is composed of first-generation college students.

At Construction Protection Systems, we’re proud to have had the opportunity to make a contribution, however small, to the growth and development of this up-and-coming campus. Stay tuned for more updates from the makers of 1-2-3 Door Shield – the original, reusable door protection system.